LET US JOURNEY TOGETHER IN HOPE: LENT 2025 WITH POPE FRANCIS

 
    He may or may not be dying, but Pope Francis is still working, even in the hospital!  Today (that is, Tuesday, 2-25) the Vatican website published his message for Lent, and I want to share some of the highlights in order better to focus ourselves during our 40 day journey to Easter.
 
    The theme for this year’s Jubilee is “Pilgrims of Hope,” and he wants to unpack this theme by reflecting on 3 terms:  to journey, together, and in hope.
 
 Journeying reminds us, he says, of the people of Israel, leaving Egypt and heading to the Promised Land.  But he asks us to consider those today who are also on this kind of journey—“…fleeing situations of misery and violence in search of a better life for themselves and their loved ones.”  Then he asks us to realize that “all of us are pilgrims in this life.”  Self-check time: “Am I really on a journey, or am I standing still, not moving, either immobilized by fear and hopelessness or reluctant to move out of my comfort zone?"  It's a tough question; Lent is a good time to let it challenge us and lead us to growth.
 
 Pope Francis’ 2^nd focus is on the word “together.”  He reminds us that we are called [by God] “to walk at the side of others, and never as lone travellers” (I might have said, “lone rangers”).  The danger here, he says, is “to remain self-absorbed.”  The goal is “walking side-by-side,” with no shoving/stepping on, no one left behind/excluded.  Why?  Because we all have the same goal: unity with God.  So, self-check time #2: to ask whether “we cooperate with others…show ourselves welcoming, with concrete gestures…[w]hether we make others feel a part of the community or keep them at a distance.”  As a parish I think we pass this self-check well.  How about ourselves individually?
 
 The last focal point is to do this “in hope.”  He leads this section off with a reference to the encyclical letter of Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi (“The Hope That Saves”): “…the human being needs unconditional love.  He needs the certainty …”  How true this is, we all know from experience, don’t we?  And the Holy Father knows that we find that “…the faith and great hope of Christians rests in this: the resurrection of Christ!”  So, self-check #3: do I really trust in God?  “Am I convinced that the Lord forgives my sins?”  [You have no idea—or maybe you do!—how many people tell me that even after confessing and receiving absolution, they believe they aren’t really forgiven.]  “Do I concretely experience the hope that…inspires in me a commitment to justice and fraternity…in such a way that no one feels excluded?”
 
 Francis concludes with a quote from St Teresa of Avila: “Hope, O my soul, hope.  You know neither the day nor the hour.  Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly…”  In his own health crisis, we can well imagine the poignancy he feels in these words!  Let’s continue to pray for him and to ask the Lord to help us with our own “journeying together in hope.”
                                                                                                                    -Fr. David